Health officials update information on anthrax case

The Minnesota Department of Health in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been investigating a case of inhalation anthrax. The individual, a man in his 60s, had traveled through several states in July and early August, where anthrax is known to be in the soil and to have caused infections in animals, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. He was hospitalized in early August with pneumonia, was determined to have inhalation anthrax and is now recovering. The Bacillus anthracis strain isolated from the patient was found by genetic testing to be similar to other strains isolated in North America. The individual had a prior chronic lung condition, which may have made him more susceptible to infection with anthrax, and had multiple exposures to soil and animal products. No other human cases of anthrax have been reported in 2011.